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Busy Weekend in Michigan
Milford, MI - Events of Saturday, August 27 to Monday, August 29, 2011
We usually end up holing up in the motor home over the weekend and letting the weekend warriors have the run of the campground, the sightseeing attractions, and the restaurants. We sometimes do our grocery shopping on Saturday, but Walmart can be a zoo then as well.
While we were in Milford, however, we made plans to go visiting over the weekend. We planned to visit with family who live nearby on Saturday and to visit with old friends on Sunday.
Our niece, Sonya, lives in Lansing and our nephew, Alex, lives in Ann Arbor, both about 30 miles from Milford. We haven't seen either one of them for years and years, so made plans to meet them and their significant others on Saturday part way between Ann Arbor and Milford for brunch at the Breakfast Club in Brighton.
The Breakfast Club has delicious breakfast bowls and plates, but they also have great sandwiches. Margery had a Monterey turkey sandwich with mango and avocado, and Paul had a California chicken melt with provolone, roasted red pepper, artichoke, and scallion aioli. Big breakfasts range in price from $7 to $10. Simpler breakfasts start at about $5. Sandwiches and lunch salads run from $6 to $10.
Unfortunately, we got so caught up in our conversation we completely forgot to take any pictures. We did have a great time catching up on what has been going on in our niece and nephew's lives and we enjoyed meeting Sonya's husband, Scott, and Alex's girl friend, Lucy.
On Sunday, we scheduled meeting Pierre and Terry, who are old friends from back in Pittsburgh. In the late 1960s and early 1970s when we were first married and before our daughter was born, we belonged to a sports car club, which is where we met Pierre. When our daughter was born, we quit the sports car club and lost touch with Pierre.
We knew Terry separately from the church we started attending when our daughter was in school. Subsequently, we changed churches and lost touch with Terry.
In the ensuing years, Pierre and Terry met and married, and they ended up moving to Ann Arbor. Margery reconnected with them through Facebook.
We decided to meet for lunch at Bobber Down Restaurant in Whitmore Lake, which is about half way between Ann Arbor and Milford. Bobber Down doesn't look fancy - it's primarily a bar, but it got good reviews on a couple of websites we checked, and the location was convenient.
Check out the old Ford parked in front of the restaurant. We're guessing it's a Model A (1927-1931). Below is another view.
This time, we made sure we remembered photos. That's Pierre and Terry to the left.
Margery had a grilled turkey club sandwich on foccacia bread, and Paul had a black and blue burger (black pepper and blue cheese). The food was great. Sandwiches range in price from $6 to $9 and include house-made potato chips. Regular fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings are extra.
We dug the next photo out of our archives showing Pierre back in 1971.
We had a lot of fun reminiscing about old times in the sports car club and about people we knew back then. Since we're on the subject of the sports car club and since we were digging through our archives, we thought we would show you a picture of Margery racing her Opel Rallye. Zoom-zoom.
We raced in what are called autocrosses. In those days, malls were not open on Sundays, and the club would get permission from the mall management to set up a small course in the parking lot using rubber traffic cones. There were different classes for men and women, and for different types of cars. We raced against the clock one at a time, so there was little chance of wrecking. That was a good thing because most of us raced the cars we also drove to work the next day. However, the autocrosses were hard on brakes, tires and clutches.
Paul raced his 1967 Camaro for a while.
Later, we bought a used 1969 Opel GT to replace the Opel Rallye, and we both raced the GT.
After a fun weekend with family and friends, we headed about 30 minutes north on Monday to Flint, MI to tour the GM Assembly Plant. There was a tour of a plant in the Ford Rouge Complex available through The Henry Ford, but there was a charge for the tour. Not only that, but we have been staunch GM buyers most of our lives, so we opted for the free tour of the GM Plant in Flint.
The Flint Assembly Plant builds Chevrolet and GMC ¾ ton and 1 ton pickups. The next photo shows our view as we approached the plant.
The plant is so big it wouldn't all fit in the picture, but it didn't look as big as most auto assembly plants. That's because most auto assembly plants are only one story and sprawl all over the countyside. This is an older plant built right after WWII, and it's two stories high. Of course, just because it's an older plant, that doesn't mean it's outdated. The building is older, and they have to cope with the fact it's two stories by routing the assembly line to the second floor and back down; but all the equipmnent is state of the art.
We had to make reservations for the tour in advance, and the email confirmation we received gave us directions to the plant and info on the parking. There is a special visitor lot right by the door if you are driving a GM vehicle. Otherwise, you have to park in the next lot and walk a little farther. Since our Saturn was made by GM, we got to park in the preferred lot. The photo below shows the sign limiting parking there to GM vehicles only.
The next photo shows the semi-circular entrance to the office where the tours start.
Of course, cameras are not allowed in the plant, so we can't show any pictures of the inside.
The GM Plant in Flint is an assembly plant. Engines, transmissions, body panels and various sub-assemblies are manufactured elsewhere.
We got to see all the operations except inside the paint booth. Since that area must be kept clean, it is closed to tours.
We did get to see the assembly of brakes, engines, transmissions and other components to the chassis. We also got to see welding of body panels together. They have an amazing coordinate measuring machine that uses lasers to make sure all dimensions of the assembled cab meet tolerances so it will match up properly with other components like the doors, fenders and hood when they are assembled later on. The machine also makes sure every spot weld is present and in the right location.
The cab, doors, hood and fenders for each vehicle are all painted at the same time. After painting, the other components are separated from the cab. Doors go one direction to have windows, door handles, locks and speakers installed; and the cabs go another direction to have interiors installed. The doors, fenders and hood all come back together for final assembly with their original cab farther down the line.
GM, like Toyota that we visited in Kentucky last year, uses teams to perform groups of related orerations. Operators can assist each other, or they can sound an alarm which summons a troubleshooter to the location to provide additional help.
One of the most impressive machines we saw was the one that marries the cab and box to the chassis. The machine has to be huge to be able to handle those heavy components, yet the precision to align all the components and then line itself up to hit all the bolts and tighten them is amazing. Not only that, but the machine also has to know whether it's assembling a 2-door cab or a 4-door cab and whether it's a short box or a long box.
There were originally supposed to be more people on our tour, but they didn't show so we had our own personal tour. That was kind of nice because we got to sit right behind the tour guide who was driving the tram so we could hear very well, and we got to ask all the questions we wanted.
We mentioned the Henry Ford Museum in our first post about Greenfield Village. The museum was the next thing on our agenda, and we'll tell you about our visit there in our following post.


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The Bible nowhere explicitly states at what point God considers a man and a woman to be married. Due to the Bible's silence on this matter, identifying the precise moment a man and woman are married in God's eyes is a complex undertaking. Here are the three most common viewpoints: 1) God only considers a man and a woman married when they are legally married—that is, when they become husband and wife in the eyes of the law. 2) A man and a woman are married in God's eyes when they have completed some kind of formal wedding ceremony involving covenantal vows. 3) God considers a man and a woman to be married at the moment they engage in sexual intercourse. Let's look at each of the three views and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each.
1) God only considers a man and a woman married when they are legally married. The scriptural support typically given for this view is the command to obey the government's laws (Romans 13:1–7; 1 Peter 2:17). The argument is that, if the government requires certain procedures and paperwork to be completed before a marriage is recognized, then a couple should submit themselves to that process. It is definitely biblical for a couple to submit to the government as long as the requirements do not contradict God's Word and are reasonable. Romans 13:1–2 tells us, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."
However, there are some weaknesses and potential problems with this view. First, marriage existed before any government was organized. For thousands of years, people were getting married with no such thing as a marriage license. Second, even today, there are some countries that have no governmental recognition of marriage, and/or no legal requirements for marriage. Third, there are some governments that place unbiblical requirements on a marriage before it is legally recognized. As an example, some countries require weddings to be held in a Catholic church, according to Catholic teachings, and overseen by a Catholic priest. Obviously, for those who have strong disagreements with the Catholic Church and the Catholic understanding of marriage as a sacrament, it would be unbiblical to submit to being married in the Catholic Church. Fourth, to make the legitimacy of the marriage union solely dependent on government statutes is to indirectly sanction the statutory definition of marriage, which may fluctuate.
2) A man and a woman are married in God's eyes when they have completed some kind of formal wedding ceremony. Some interpreters understand God's bringing Eve to Adam (Genesis 2:22) as God's overseeing the first wedding "ceremony"—the modern practice of a father giving away his daughter at a wedding reflects God's action in Eden. In John chapter 2, Jesus attended a wedding ceremony. Jesus would not have attended such an event if He did not approve of what was occurring. Jesus' presence at a wedding ceremony by no means indicates that God requires a wedding ceremony, but it does indicate that a wedding ceremony is acceptable in God's sight. Nearly every culture in the history of humanity has observed some kind of formal wedding ceremony. In every culture there is an event, action, covenant, vow, or proclamation that is recognized as declaring a man and woman to be married.
3) God considers a man and a woman to be married at the moment they engage in sexual intercourse. There are some who take this to mean that a married couple is not truly "married" in God's eyes until they have consummated the marriage physically. Others argue that, if any man and woman have sex, God considers the two of them to be married. The basis for this view is the fact that sexual intercourse between a husband and wife is the ultimate fulfillment of the "one flesh" principle (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 5:31). In this sense, sexual intercourse is the final "seal" on a marriage covenant. However, the view that intercourse constitutes marriage is not biblically sound. If a couple is legally and ceremonially married, but for some reason is unable to engage in sexual intercourse, that couple is still considered married.
We know that God does not equate sexual intercourse with marriage based on the fact that the Old Testament often distinguishes a wife from a concubine. For example, 2 Chronicles 11:21 describes one king's family life: "Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines." In this verse, concubines who had sexual intercourse with King Rehoboam are not considered wives and are mentioned as a separate category.
Also, 1 Corinthians 7:2 indicates that sex before marriage is immorality. If sexual intercourse causes a couple to become married, it could not be considered immoral, as the couple would be considered married the moment they engaged in sexual intercourse. There is absolutely no biblical basis for an unmarried couple to have sex and then declare themselves to be married, thereby declaring all future sexual relations to be moral and God-honoring.
Some point to Genesis 24 and the story of Isaac and Rebekah as an example of a couple being married solely by sexual intercourse, without any type of ceremony. But the details that lead up to the marriage reveal that a formal process was followed. Isaac's father, Abraham, gave his servant a list of things to do to find Isaac a wife (Genesis 24:1–10). The servant did all his master asked, plus he prayed to God for guidance and confirmation (verses 12–14). God did guide him, and He also confirmed all of the servant's "tests" to show that the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was indeed God-approved (verses 15–27). So convinced was the servant of God's will that he immediately related to Rebekah's brother, Laban, all the details confirming God's choice (verses 32–49). By the time dinner was served, everyone knew that this was of God, that both Isaac and Rebekah should be married (verses 50–51). Then a dowry was paid, and verbal contracts were pledged between them (verses 52–59). Thus, the marriage mentioned in verse 67 was hardly based on a mere sexual act. Cultural procedures and dowry traditions were fulfilled, conditions were met, answers to prayer were seen, and the obvious blessing by God was upon the entire scenario.
So, what constitutes marriage in God's eyes? It would seem that the following principles should be followed: 1) As long as the requirements are reasonable and not against the Bible, a man and a woman should seek whatever formal governmental recognition is available. 2) A man and a woman should follow whatever cultural, familial, and covenantal practices are typically employed to recognize a couple as "officially married." 3) If possible, a man and a woman should consummate the marriage sexually, fulfilling the physical aspect of the "one flesh" principle.

subset: commoncrawl


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It's time to launch my 2010 cycling climbs map. Call me stupid but I find it motivating to start each year with an empty map and try and fill it with Cols. Only rides with pretty big ascent are included. Feel free to suggest a climb.
For a map of all climbs over all years – see here. For other maps see the sidebar or menu.
Click Ride Icons for link to details. I have split climbs into a few geographic categories:
Blue = French Alps ; Green = French Jura Mountains
Red = Swiss Alps ; Pale Blue = Swiss Jura Mountains
Small Red flag = small cols (passes) that I have climbed or perhaps passed from an easier direction.
It is necessary to use the "view larger map" option at bottom or to scroll around – to see all climbs.
View 2010 Cycling Climbs in a larger map


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July 23, 2009
Regulatory restructuring
Governor Daniel K. Tarullo
Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
Chairman Bernanke presented identical remarks before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, on July 24, 2009
Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Shelby, and other members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss how to improve the U.S. financial regulatory system so as to contain systemic risk and to address the related problem of too-big-to-fail financial institutions. Experience over the past two years clearly demonstrates that the United States needs a comprehensive strategy to help prevent financial crises and to mitigate the effects of crises that may occur.
The roots of this crisis lie in part in the fact that regulatory powers and capacities lagged the increasingly tight integration of conventional lending activities with the issuance, trading, and financing of securities. This crisis did not begin with depositor runs on banks, but with investor runs on firms that financed their holdings of securities in the wholesale money markets. An effective agenda for containing systemic risk thus requires adjustments by all our financial regulatory agencies under existing authorities. It also invites action by the Congress to fill existing gaps in regulation, remove impediments to consolidated oversight of complex institutions, and provide the instruments necessary to cope with serious financial problems that do arise.
In keeping with the Committee's interest today in a systemic risk agenda, I will identify some of the key administrative and legislative elements that should be a part of that agenda. Ensuring that all systemically important financial institutions are subject to effective consolidated supervision is a critical first step. Second, a more macroprudential outlook--that is, one that takes into account the safety and soundness of the financial system as a whole, as well as individual institutions--needs to be incorporated into the supervision and regulation of these firms and financial institutions more generally. Third, better and more formal mechanisms should be established to help identify, monitor, and address potential or emerging systemic risks across the financial system as a whole, including gaps in regulatory or supervisory coverage that could present systemic risks. A council with broad representation across agencies and departments concerned with financial supervision and regulation is one approach to this goal. Fourth, a new resolution process for systemically important nonbank financial firms should be created that would allow the government to wind down a troubled systemically important firm in an orderly manner. Fifth, all systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements should be subject to consistent and robust oversight and prudential standards.
The role of the Federal Reserve in a reoriented financial regulatory system derives, in our view, directly from its position as the nation's central bank. Financial stability is integral to the achievement of maximum employment and price stability, the dual mandate that Congress has conferred on the Federal Reserve as its objectives in the conduct of monetary policy. Indeed, there are some important synergies between systemic risk regulation and monetary policy, as insights garnered from each of those functions informs the performance of the other. Close familiarity with private credit relationships, particularly among the largest financial institutions and through critical payment and settlement systems, makes monetary policy makers better able to anticipate how their actions will affect the economy. Conversely, the substantial economic analysis that accompanies monetary policy decisions can reveal potential vulnerabilities of financial institutions.
While the improvements in the financial regulatory framework outlined above would involve some expansion of Federal Reserve responsibilities, that expansion would be an incremental and natural extension of the Federal Reserve's existing supervisory and regulatory responsibilities, reflecting the important relationship between financial stability and the roles of a central bank. An effective and comprehensive agenda for addressing systemic risk will also require new responsibilities for other federal agencies and departments, including the Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Consolidated Supervision of Systemically Important Financial Institutions
The current financial crisis has clearly demonstrated that risks to the financial system can arise not only in the banking sector, but also from the activities of other financial firms--such as investment banks or insurance organizations--that traditionally have not been subject, either by law or in practice, to the type of regulation and consolidated supervision applicable to bank holding companies. While effective consolidated supervision of potentially systemic firms is not, by itself, sufficient to foster financial stability, it certainly is a necessary condition. The Administration's recent proposal for strengthening the financial system would subject all systemically important financial institutions to the same framework for prudential supervision on the same consolidated or group-wide basis that currently applies to bank holding companies. In doing so, it would also prevent systemically important firms that have become bank holding companies during the crisis from reversing this change and escaping prudential supervision in calmer financial times. While this proposal is an important piece of an agenda to contain systemic risk and the too-big-to-fail problem, it would not actually entail a significant expansion of the Federal Reserve's mandate.
The proposal would entail two tasks--first identifying, and then effectively supervising, these systemically important institutions. As to supervision, the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (BHCA) designates the Federal Reserve as the consolidated supervisor of all bank holding companies. That act provides the Federal Reserve a range of tools to understand, monitor and, when appropriate, restrain the risks associated with an organization's consolidated or group-wide activities. Under this framework, the Federal Reserve has the authority to establish consolidated capital requirements for bank holding companies. In addition, subject to certain limits I will discuss later, the act permits the Federal Reserve to obtain reports from and conduct examinations of a bank holding company and any of its subsidiaries. It also grants authority to require the organization or its subsidiaries to alter their risk-management practices or take other actions to address risks that threaten the safety and soundness of the organization.
Under the BHCA, the Federal Reserve already supervises some of the largest and most complex financial institutions in the world. In the course of the financial crisis, several large financial firms that previously were not subject to mandatory consolidated supervision--including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and American Express--became bank holding companies, in part to assure market participants that they were subject to robust prudential supervision on a consolidated basis. While the number of additional financial institutions that would be subject to supervision under the Administration's approach would of course depend on standards or guidelines adopted by the Congress, the criteria offered by the Administration suggest to us that the initial number of newly regulated firms would probably be relatively limited. One important feature of this approach is that it provides ongoing authority to identify and supervise other firms that may become systemically important in the future, whether through organic growth or the migration of activities from regulated entities.
Determining precisely which firms would meet these criteria will require considerable analysis of the linkages between firms and markets, drawing as much or more on economic and financial analysis as on bank supervisory expertise. Financial institutions are systemically important if the failure of the firm to meet its obligations to creditors and customers would have significant adverse consequences for the financial system and the broader economy. At any point in time, the systemic importance of an individual firm depends on a wide range of factors. Obviously, the consequences of a firm's failure are more likely to be severe if the firm is large, taking account of both its on- and off-balance sheet activities. But size is far from the only relevant consideration. The impact of a firm's financial distress depends also on the degree to which it is interconnected, either receiving funding from, or providing funding to, other potentially systemically important firms, as well as on whether it performs crucial services that cannot easily or quickly be executed by other financial institutions. In addition, the impact varies over time: the more fragile the overall financial backdrop and the condition of other financial institutions, the more likely a given firm is to be judged systemically important. If the ability of the financial system to absorb adverse shocks is low, the threshold for systemic importance will more easily be reached. Judging whether a financial firm is systemically important is thus not a straightforward task, especially because a determination must be based on an assessment of whether the firm's failure would likely have systemic effects during a future stress event, the precise parameters of which cannot be fully known.
For supervision of firms identified as systemically important to be effective, we will need to build on lessons learned from the current crisis and on changes we are already undertaking in light of the broader range of financial firms that have come under our supervision in the last year. In October, we issued new consolidated supervision guidance for bank holding companies that provides for supervisory objectives and actions to be calibrated more directly to the systemic significance of individual institutions and bolsters supervisory expectations with respect to the corporate governance, risk management, and internal controls of the largest, most complex organizations.1 We are also adapting our internal organization of supervisory activities to take better advantage of the information and insight that the economic and financial analytic capacities of the Federal Reserve can bring to bear in financial regulation.
The recently completed Supervisory Capital Assessment Process (SCAP) reflects some of these changes in the Federal Reserve's system for prudential supervision of the largest banking organizations. This unprecedented process specifically incorporated forward-looking, cross-firm, and aggregate analyses of the 19 largest bank holding companies, which together control a majority of the assets and loans within the financial system. Importantly, supervisors in the SCAP defined a uniform set of parameters to apply to each firm being evaluated, which allowed us to evaluate on a consistent basis the expected performance of the firms, drawing on individual firm information and independently estimated outcomes using supervisory models. Drawing on this experience, we will conduct horizontal examinations on a periodic basis to assess key operations, risks, and risk-management activities of large institutions.
We also plan to create a quantitative surveillance program for large, complex financial organizations that will use supervisory information, firm-specific data analysis, and market-based indicators to identify developing strains and imbalances that may affect multiple institutions, as well as emerging risks to specific firms. Periodic scenario analyses across large firms will enhance our understanding of the potential impact of adverse changes in the operating environment on individual firms and on the system as a whole. This work will be performed by a multi-disciplinary group composed of our economic and market researchers, supervisors, market operations specialists, and accounting and legal experts. This program will be distinct from the activities of on-site examination teams so as to provide an independent supervisory perspective, as well as to complement the work of those teams.
To be fully effective, consolidated supervisors must have clear authority to monitor and address safety and soundness concerns and systemic risks in all parts of an organization, working in coordination with other supervisors wherever possible. As the crisis has demonstrated, the assessment of nonbank activities is essential to understanding the linkages between depository and nondepository subsidiaries and the risk-profile of the organization as a whole. The Administration's proposal would make useful modifications to the provisions added to the law in 1999 that limit the ability of the Federal Reserve to monitor and address risks within an organization and its subsidiaries on a group-wide basis.2
A Macroprudential Approach to Supervision and Regulation
The existing framework for the regulation and supervision of banking organizations is focused primarily on the safety and soundness of individual organizations, particularly their insured depository institutions. As the Administration's proposal recognizes, the resiliency of the financial system could be improved by incorporating a more explicit macroprudential approach to supervision and regulation. A macroprudential outlook, which considers interlinkages and interdependencies among firms and markets that could threaten the financial system in a crisis, complements the current microprudential orientation of bank supervision and regulation.
Indeed, a more macroprudential focus is essential in light of the potential for explicit regulatory identification of systemically important firms to exacerbate the "too big to fail" problem. Unless countervailing steps are taken, the belief by market participants that a particular firm is too big to fail, and that shareholders and creditors of the firm may be partially or fully protected from the consequences of a failure, has many undesirable effects. It materially weakens the incentive of shareholders and creditors of the firm to restrain the firm's risk-taking, provides incentives for financial firms to become very large in order to be perceived as too big to fail, and creates an unlevel competitive playing field with smaller firms that may not be regarded as having implicit government support.
Creation of a mechanism for the orderly resolution of systemically important nonbank financial firms, which I will discuss later, should help remediate this problem. In addition, capital, liquidity, and risk-management requirements for systemically important firms will need to be strengthened to help counteract moral hazard effects, as well as the greater potential risks these institutions pose to the financial system and to the economy. We believe that the agency responsible for supervision of these institutions should have the authority to adopt and apply such requirements, and thus have clear accountability for their efficacy. Optimally, these requirements should be calibrated based on the relative systemic importance of the institution, a different measure than a firm's direct credit and other risk exposures as calculated in traditional capital or liquidity regulation.
It may also be beneficial for supervisors to require that systemically important firms maintain specific forms of capital so as to increase their ability to absorb losses outside of a bankruptcy or formal resolution procedure. Such capital could be in contingent form, converting to common equity only when necessary to mitigate systemic risk. A macroprudential approach also should be reflected in regulatory capital standards more generally, so that banks are required to increase their capital levels in good times in order to create a buffer that can be drawn down as economic and financial conditions deteriorate.
The development and implementation of capital standards for systemically important firms is but one of many elements of an effective macroprudential approach to financial regulation. Direct and indirect exposures among systemically important firms are an obvious source of interdependency and potential systemic risk. Direct credit exposures may arise from lending, loan commitments, guarantees, or derivative counterparty relationships among institutions. Indirect exposures may arise through exposures to a common risk factor, such as the real estate market, that could stress the system by causing losses to many firms at the same time, through common dependence on potentially unstable sources of short-term funding, or through common participation in payment, clearing, or settlement systems.
While large, correlated exposures have always been an important source of risk and an area of focus for supervisors, macroprudential supervision requires special attention to the interdependencies among systemically important firms that arise from common exposures. Similarly, there must be monitoring of exposures that could grow significantly in times of system-wide financial stress, such as those arising from OTC derivatives or the sponsorship of off-balance-sheet financing conduits funded by short-term liabilities that are susceptible to runs. One tool that would be useful in identifying such exposures would be the cross-firm horizontal reviews that I discussed earlier, enhanced to focus on the collective effects of market stresses.
The Federal Reserve also would expect to carefully monitor and address, either individually or in conjunction with other supervisors and regulators, the potential for additional spillover effects. Spillovers may occur not only due to exposures currently on a firm's books, but also as a result of reactions to stress elsewhere in the system, including at other systemically important firms or in key markets. For example, the failure of one firm may lead to deposit or liability runs at other firms that are seen by investors as similarly situated or that have exposures to such firms. In the recent financial crisis, exactly this sort of spillover resulted from the failure of Lehman Brothers, which led to heightened pressures on other investment banks. One tool that could be helpful in evaluating spillover risks would be multiple-firm or system-level stress tests focused particularly on such risks. However, this type of test would greatly exceed the SCAP in operational complexity; thus, properly developing and implementing such a test would be a substantial challenge.
Potential Role of a Council
The breadth and heterogeneity of the U.S. financial system have been great economic strengths of our country. However, these same characteristics mean that common exposures or practices across a wide range of financial markets and financial institutions may over time pose risks to financial stability, but may be difficult to identify in their early stages. Moreover, addressing the pervasive problem of pro-cyclicality in the financial system will require efforts across financial sectors. To help address these issues, the Administration has proposed the establishment of a Financial Services Oversight Council composed of the Treasury and all of the federal financial supervisory and regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve.
The Board sees substantial merit in the establishment of a council to conduct macroprudential analysis and coordinate oversight of the financial system as a whole. The perspective of, and information from, supervisors on such a council with different primary responsibilities would be helpful in identifying and monitoring emerging systemic risks across the full range of financial institutions and markets. A council could be charged with identifying emerging sources of systemic risk, including: large and rising exposures across firms and markets; emerging trends in leverage or activities that could result in increased systemic fragility; possible misalignments in asset markets; potential sources of spillovers between financial firms or between firms and markets that could propagate, or even magnify, financial shocks; and new markets, practices, products, or institutions that may fall through the gaps in regulatory coverage and become threats to systemic stability. In addition, a council could play a useful role in coordinating responses by member agencies to mitigate emerging systemic risks identified by the council, and by helping coordinate actions to address procylicality in capital regulations, accounting standards (particularly with regard to reserves), deposit insurance premiums, and other supervisory and regulatory practices. In light of these responsibilities and its broad membership, a council also would be a useful forum for identifying financial firms that are at the cusp of being systemically important and, when appropriate, recommending such firms for designation as systemically important. Finally, should Congress choose to create default authority for regulation of activities that do not fall under the jurisdiction of any existing financial regulator, the council would seem the appropriate instrumentality to determine how the expanded jurisdiction should be exercised.
A council could be tasked with gathering and evaluating information from the various supervisory agencies and producing an annual report to the Congress on the state of the financial system, potential threats to financial stability, and the responses of member agencies to identified threats. Such a report could include recommendations for statutory changes where needed to address systemic threats due to, for example, growth or changes in unregulated sectors of the financial system. More generally, a council could promote research and other efforts to enhance understanding, both nationally and internationally, of the underlying causes of financial instability and systemic risk and possible approaches to countering such developments.
To fulfill such responsibilities, a council would need access to a broad range of information from its member financial supervisors regarding the institutions and markets under their purview, as well as from other government agencies. Where the information necessary to monitor emerging risks was not available from a member agency, a council likely would need the authority to collect such information directly from financial institutions and markets.3
Improved Resolution Process
A key element to addressing systemic risk is the creation of a new regime that would allow the orderly resolution of systemically important nonbank financial firms. In most cases, the federal bankruptcy laws provide an appropriate framework for the resolution of nonbank financial institutions. However, the bankruptcy code does not sufficiently protect the public's strong interest in ensuring the orderly resolution of a nonbank financial firm whose failure would pose substantial risks to the financial system and to the economy. Indeed, after the Lehman and AIG experiences, there is little doubt that there needs to be a third option between the choices of bankruptcy and bailout.
The Administration's proposal would create such an option by allowing the Treasury to appoint a conservator or receiver for a systemically important nonbank financial institution that has failed or is in danger of failing. The conservator or receiver would have a variety of authorities--similar to those provided the FDIC with respect to failing insured banks--to stabilize and either rehabilitate or wind down the firm in a way that mitigates risks to financial stability and to the economy. For example, the conservator or receiver would have the ability to take control of the management and operations of the failing firm; sell assets, liabilities, and business units of the firm; and repudiate contracts of the firm. These are appropriate tools for a conservator or receiver. However, Congress may wish to consider adding some constraints as well--such as requiring that shareholders bear losses and that creditors be entitled to at least the liquidation value of their claims.
Importantly, the proposal would allow the government, through a receivership, to impose "haircuts" on creditors and shareholders of the firm, either directly or by "bridging" the failing institution to a new entity, when consistent with the overarching goal of protecting the financial system and the broader economy. This aspect of the proposal is critical to addressing the too-big-to-fail problem and the resulting moral hazard effects that I discussed earlier.
The Administration's proposal appropriately would establish a high standard for invocation of this new resolution regime and would create checks and balances on its potential use, similar to the provisions governing use of the systemic risk exception to least-cost resolution in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDI Act). The Federal Reserve's participation in this decisionmaking process would be an extension of our long-standing role in protecting financial stability, involvement in the current process for invoking the systemic risk exception under the FDI Act, and status as consolidated supervisor for large banking organizations. The Federal Reserve, however, is not well suited, nor do we seek, to serve as the resolution agency for systemically important institutions under the new framework.
As we have seen during the recent crisis, a substantial commitment of public funds may be needed, at least on a temporary basis, to stabilize and facilitate the orderly resolution of a large, highly interconnected financial firm. The Administration's proposal provides for such funding needs to be addressed by the Treasury, with the ultimate costs of any assistance to be recouped through assessments on financial firms over an extended period of time. We believe the Treasury is the appropriate source of funding for the resolution of systemically important financial institutions, given the unpredictable and inherently fiscal nature of this function. The availability of such funding from Treasury also would eliminate the need for the Federal Reserve to use its emergency lending authority under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to prevent the failure of specific institutions.
Payment, Clearing, and Settlement Arrangements
The current regulatory and supervisory framework for systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements is fragmented, with no single agency having the ability to ensure that all systemically important arrangements are held to consistent and strong prudential standards. The Administration's proposal would provide the Federal Reserve certain additional authorities for ensuring that all systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements are subject to robust standards for safety and soundness.
Payment, settlement, and clearing arrangements are the foundation of the nation's financial infrastructure. These arrangements include centralized market utilities for clearing and settling payments, securities, and derivatives transactions, as well as decentralized activities through which financial institutions clear and settle such transactions bilaterally. While payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements can create significant efficiencies and promote transparency in the financial markets, they also may concentrate substantial credit, liquidity, and operational risks. Many of these arrangements also have direct and indirect financial or operational linkages and, absent strong risk controls, can themselves be a source of contagion in times of stress. Thus, it is critical that systemically important systems and activities be subject to strong and consistent prudential standards designed to ensure the identification and sound management of credit, liquidity, and operational risks.
The proposed authority would build on the considerable experience of the Federal Reserve in overseeing systemically important payment, clearing, and settlement arrangements for prudential purposes. Over the years, the Federal Reserve has worked extensively with domestic and foreign regulators to develop strong and internationally recognized standards for critical systems. Further, the Federal Reserve already has direct supervisory responsibility for some of the largest and most critical systems in the United States, including the Depository Trust Company and CLS Bank and has a role in overseeing several other systemically important systems. Yet, at present, this authority depends to a considerable extent on the specific organizational form of these systems as state member banks. The safe and efficient operation of payment, settlement, and clearing systems is critical to the execution of monetary policy and the flow of liquidity throughout the financial sector, which is why many central banks around the world currently have explicit oversight responsibilities for critical systems.
Importantly, the proposed enhancements to our responsibilities for the safety and soundness of systemically important arrangements would complement--and not displace--the authority of the SEC and CFTC for the systems subject to their supervision under the federal securities and commodities laws. We have an extensive history of working cooperatively with these agencies, as well as international authorities. For example, the Federal Reserve works closely with the SEC in supervising the Depository Trust Company and also works closely with 21 other central banks in supervising the foreign exchange settlements of CLS Bank.
Consumer Protection
A word on the consumer protection piece of the Administration's plan may be appropriate here, insofar as we have seen how problems in consumer protection can in some cases contain the seeds of systemic problems. The Administration proposes to shift responsibility for writing and enforcing regulations to protect consumers from unfair practices in financial transactions from the Federal Reserve to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Without extensively entering the debate on the relative merits of this proposal, I do think it important to point out some of the benefits that would be lost through this change.
Both the substance of consumer protection rules and their enforcement are complementary to prudential supervision. Poorly designed financial products and misaligned incentives can at once harm consumers and undermine financial institutions. Indeed, as with subprime mortgages and securities backed by these mortgages, these products may at times also be connected to systemic risk. At the same time, a determination of how to regulate financial practices both effectively and efficiently can be facilitated by the understanding of institutions' practices and systems that is gained through safety and soundness regulation and supervision. Similarly, risk assessment and compliance monitoring of consumer and prudential regulations are closely related, and thus entail both informational advantages and resource savings.
Under Chairman Bernanke's leadership, the Federal Reserve has adopted strong consumer protection measures in the mortgage and credit card areas. These regulations benefited from the supervisory and research capabilities of the Federal Reserve, including expertise in consumer credit markets, retail payments, banking operations, and economic analysis. Involving all these forms of expertise is important for tailoring rules that prevent abuses while not impeding the availability of sensible extensions of credit.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on these important matters. The Federal Reserve looks forward to working with Congress and the Administration to enact meaningful regulatory reform that will strengthen the financial system and reduce both the probability and severity of future crises.
1. See Supervision and Regulation Letter 08-9, "Consolidated Supervision of Bank Holding Companies and the Combined U.S. Operations of Foreign Banking Organizations," and the associated interagency guidance. Return to text
2. The Administration's proposal also would close the loophole in current law that allowed certain investment banks, as well as other financial and nonfinancial firms, to acquire control of a federally insured industrial loan company (ILC) while avoiding the prudential framework that Congress established for the corporate owners of other full-service insured banks. The Board has for many years supported such a change. Return to text
3. To facilitate information collections and interagency sharing, a council should have the clear authority for protecting confidential information subject, of course, to applicable law, including the Freedom of Information Act. Return to text


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28 May 2011
After the "reconciliation" agreement was signed between leaders of the Fatah and Hamas Palestinian factions in Cairo on 4 May, we were told that a "unity government" would be formed within days.
Yet more than three weeks later, there is little sign of it and the questions the agreement raised when it was first signed, stand unanswered.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on 27 May:
Sources close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he will seek to form a government of technocrats by mid-June which will accept the demands of the Quartet, including recognition of Israel.
The sources said that Abbas also appears determined to see Salam Fayyad appointed as prime minister on the unity government, despite widespread objection, as he believes that without Fayyad, the international criticism he has received because of the reconciliation agreement with Hamas cannot be countered.
Mid-June? Is that a promise?
Abbas official visits Gaza
Meanwhile Nabil Shaath, a top Abbas associate, visited the Gaza Strip last week supposedly to advance the implementation of the "unity" agreement.
But his statements to the media during the visit about "implementing" the unity deal remain vague, and similar to those that preceded the deal – a general commitment to "unity," but without specifics.
It is obvious that the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah remains subject to severe pressure from its foreign financial sponsors, and from Israel, which has publicly demanded that Abbas cancel the deal with Hamas. In his major Middle East policy speech last week, US President Barack Obama also imposed public demands that Palestinians accept his, and Israel's conditions before they could be considered partners.
This underscores once again that self-government under Israel's brutal occupation and blackmail is an illusion and it might be better to dissolve the Palestinian Authority that sustains this illusion.
Divisions within Hamas and among factions
The lack of progress toward a "unity government" also comes amid reports of splits within Hamas over the deal – especially between Gaza-based leaders and the group's overall leader Khaled Meshal who is based in Damascus.
The splits appear to be sharpest about Meshal's apparent support for "peace process" negotiations that have delivered nothing to the Palestinians over almost two decades. Hamas officials have also reiterated the group's acceptance of the basic principles of the failed two-state solution.
Another report from Ma'an News Agency indicated that 8 smaller PLO factions were planning to boycott the "unity government" in protest at "what is being called a "bilateral monopoly" between Fatah and Hamas in discussions over the unity government."
These developments suggest that the root causes of the division in the Palestinian body politic were never truly resolved and as I wrote soon after the deal was announced, so far it has been a hollow reconciliation.
Ramallah Palestinian Authority rejects any revision of stances
While Hamas – notwithstanding differences of opinion – is the party that has moved the furthest, there appears to be absolutely no shift in the basic positions of the Abbas-controlled PA.
It remains fully commmitted to active military collaboration with Israeli occupation forces; the Quartet conditions that require Palestinians to submit to Israeli political demands and abandon any right to resist Israeli occupation; and keeping a Western-imposed "prime minister" to ensure that aid donors whose policies have reduced Palestinians to abject dependence on handouts, and not Palestinians, control all key decisions.
It is to be noted that the Ramallah-based PA has never repudiated the policies that created and maintained the division after Fatah refused to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory and worked with the Bush administration to overturn the result. No one behind these grave actions has ever been held to account. Overwhelming evidence indicates that these actions include:
Officials loyal to Abbas' PA formed a secret committee with the US, Israel and Egypt's deposed Mubarak regime to undermine the PA "national unity government" in 2007;
Palestinian Authority officials strenuously lobbied Israel against prisoner swap with Hamas that could have freed 1,000 Palestinians;
Ramallah Palestinian Authority officials constantly complained to Israel and the United States that the siege of Gaza wasn't tight enough, and urged that more should be done to tighten it.
Despite the fanfare of the reconciliation signing, so far there is little to celebrate, and less reason to believe that either Fatah and Hamas are capable of presenting any coherent vision to restore the rights of all Palestinians, and a strategy to achieve it.
Their deal seems to have produced many more meetings of men, but still no meeting of minds.
The Blockade HAS NOT BEEN LIFTED: C'est dommage
Permalink Padraig replied on
I was so happy to hear the Fatah-Hamas accord brokered in Eygpt.
then, I discovered that no male 18-40 can go without a visa from Ramallah,
ZERO TRUCKS CAN BRING OR DELIVER TRADE GOODS with Eygpt
I have to agree a single state SOUTH AFRICA type solution IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO
who is the alternative
Permalink Abu Shadi replied on
who is the alternative to Fatah and Hamas - we all know that the two state solution is dead , finally killed by Netanyahu - , where are the voices that calls for the one state solution , why can't they form a Front in order to offer the alternative , the time is now not later . We can't just wait and hope the other to fail , we have to organize and offer the alternative. September is months away , who knows what will happen , it helps to be organized !!!!


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<< [Back to News Release Archive]
Raytheon announces Small Format Guard to secure data transfer for mobile and tactical forces
Small, lightweight, low-power and high throughput for operation outside traditional data centers
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Trusted Computer Solutions (RTCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), today announced the addition of Small Format Guard™ to its cross domain product portfolio.
Small Format Guard is a software-based multilevel data transfer solution built specifically for mobile and tactical forces with strict size, weight, power and cooling (SWaP-C) requirements. Based on the widely deployed High Speed Guard solution, Small Format Guard supports robust security protocols and is adaptable to specific mission needs. Small Format Guard can operate on a single board computer, an Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) processor board or other x86, 64-bit ruggedized platforms providing hardware flexibility.
"Small Format Guard enables Raytheon to deliver its premier guard technology to a wider variety of customers and applications, from highly complex flying data centers with heavy redundancy requirements to land vehicle configurations," said Ed Hammersla, chief operating officer of RTCS. "Small Format Guard delivers the flexibility and security to match the mission."
RTCS products are backed by a seasoned professional services team for installation and customer configuration.
About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2011 sales of $25 billion and 71,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 90 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.
Media Contact
Chris Corsbie
SOURCE Raytheon Company


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Under pressure from civil society organizations, the Brazilian government has introduced legislation to protect and improve its traditional food system, standing in contrast to the governments of many industrialized countries that have partly surrendered their prime duty to protect public health to transnational food companies, argue nutrition and public health experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine.
Carlos Monteiro and Geoffrey Cannon, from the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition of the University of São Paulo, explain that, in Brazil, traditional long-established food systems and dietary patterns are being displaced by ultra-processed products made by transnational food corporations ("Big Food" and "Big Snack") contributing to increases in the incidence of obesity and of major chronic diseases, and adversely affecting public health and public goods by undermining culture, meals, the family, community life, local economies, and national identity.
The authors argue: "The use of law to protect and improve food systems and supplies, and thus public health, may be difficult in parts of the world where governments have already ceded the responsibility of governance to transnational and other corporations. However, in Brazil protection of public health still remains a prime duty of government."
The authors explain that by law, all Brazilian children attending state schools are entitled to one daily meal at school, at least 70% of the food supplied to schools must be fresh or minimally processed, and a minimum of 30% of this food must be sourced from local family farmers. They say that such measures help to check the penetration of transnational corporations into Brazil.
Although the penetration of such corporations into Brazil has been rapid, the tradition of shared and family meals remains strong and is likely to provide protection to national and regional food systems.
The authors say: "Notwithstanding intense pressures, which include ubiquitous television and internet propaganda designed to turn eating and drinking into constant individual snacking, food and drink consumption is not yet dislocated and isolated from family and social life in Brazil."
The authors argue that Brazil's experiences in resisting "Big Food" and "Big Snack" can help other countries. They say: "the Brazilian experience provides a basis for the design of rational, comprehensive, and effective public health policies and actions designed to protect and promote nutrition in all its senses."
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It should be the goal of the Cubmaster and Webelos leaders to graduate every Webelos Scout into a troop. The key to accomplishing this is to begin promoting Scouting when Cub Scouts are still in their Lion, Tiger, Wolf, and Bear dens, and to sell the sizzle of the great outdoors. A seamless transition requires the cooperation of many people and is a cooperative effort between the pack and the troop.
Here is some information to help you assist the Scout as they make the important decision on which troop to join including questions you and your Webelos Scout might want to ask each troop the Webelos Scout visits.
Remember: The choice of a troop is a personal decision.
Do I need to join the troop my Webelos den leader joins? No, all members of a den need not join the same troop. Nor is there a designated troop that the Scouts must join, although some packs have a close affiliation with a troop. Most troops welcome any new Scout that would like to join them.
What about the Arrow of Light Requirements? The Scouting Adventure has a requirement to visit at least one troop meeting. We recommend that the Scout visit several troops, so they can see how different troops do things. Every troop has its own traditions, activities, and level of adventure. You need to find one that is right for you. If possible, you and your Scout should attend an overnight campout as a guest of a troop. Contact the troop(s) you are interested in to set up a visit and go with your Scout to help the Webelos Scout assess the troop.
What should I ask when I visit? During your visit, there are things to ask and observe. There are no right answers to these questions, but you want a troop you and your Scout will feel comfortable with. Don't be afraid to ask about the troop. They will be proud to tell you about themselves.
How many registered Scouts are in the troop? How many registered leaders? While troops will vary in size, there should be a cadre of leadership appropriate to the number of Scouts in the troop. Do the youth tend to stick with the program year to year?
What is the age range of the Scouts? Is the troop currently able to hold the interest of the older as well as younger Scouts? Do they offer (or plan to offer) any high adventure activities? Younger Scouts traditionally work on their rank requirements so they can advance through the Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class ranks in their first year in Scouting. Much of their attention in meetings and on campouts is devoted to their basic Scout skills for these requirements. As the Scouts get into their teens, it is necessary to challenge them in order to hold their interest. Scouting has established high adventure programs for Scouts who are 13 years of age or older. They may begin high-level canoeing, rock climbing, or sailing. Troops may travel to Philmont Scout Ranch for rugged mountain backpacking or to a national or international Jamboree or to other high adventure sites.
Who are the Scout leaders in the troop? Are the Scoutmaster, assistant Scoutmasters, and committee chairman trained? What training have they attended and when? This is a very important part of your consideration of a troop. A trained leader should know BSA policies on programs, safety, and youth protection. To be considered trained, leaders must have taken training courses offered by the district and council. High levels of training are desired.
Is the troop youth run? What is their feeling about youth leadership? Most troops aim to train their youth for leadership. Each troop has a senior patrol leader (SPL), elected by all the Scouts in the troop, who with their assistant senior patrol leader takes the helm for leadership within the troop. The troop will also be organized into patrols, units of 5 to 8 Scouts who function together, similar to a Cub Scout den. They will have an elected patrol leader and assistant patrol leader. In a young troop, the youth will obviously need more adult assistance in running meetings, etc., but in an established troop with older Scouts, you should see evidence of "youth leading youth", not adults running the program.
What is their activity program like? Ask to see a copy of their yearly program schedule. You'll want to see how often they camp out. The outdoor program recommends 9-12 campouts per year, including summer camp. Do they camp in the winter? Do they participate in the district and council activities such as the district camporee, Scout Fair, Scouting for Food? Do they offer special activities at meetings? Do they invite speakers on certain topics?
What is a typical meeting like? Is it youth run? Is it upbeat? Are the youth kept busy? Is it fun? Do they show respect to the flag ceremony, to the program, to the adults, to each other? Is good discipline evident within the program?
What are their uniform requirements?
Does the troop attend summer camp? What percentage of the troop attended last year? Where do they go? Do they always go to the same camp? How many leaders attend camp with the Scouts? Are the leaders trained? Summer camp offers a tremendous opportunity for Scouts to experience the fun and excitement of camping while affording the chance to achieve rank advancements and merit badges.
How do they utilize the advancement and merit badge program? Some troops use the advancement and merit badge program as the cornerstone of their program. Their campouts and meetings center on helping the youth advance within the format outlined by the Boy Scouts of America. Some focus meetings on merit badge work. Other troops may feel that the advancements and merit badges are secondary and plan activities independent of them. Their Scouts earn all merit badges on their own. Clearly, either system can function well, and the youth can work with either one to advance all the way to Eagle Scout.
What can a parent expect in terms of fees? Fees vary from troop to troop. Most troops have an annual fee, which covers membership and basic materials, including badges and awards. It usually does not include uniform, camping fees, meals, travel or other special activity costs. You'll want to know what additional fees will likely be charged during the course of the year.
Observe how the youth interact. How do they treat the visitors? You'll want to join a troop where the Scout feels comfortable. Does the Scout need a group where they already know other youth? If they do not know other youth initially, do they seem like a group that will treat a newcomer well?
What can I do to help? Troops require lots of adult support. There are many different levels of involvement in a troop, from leadership roles, to serving on the troop committee, to helping with campouts, to driving to events, etc. We hope you can get involved with your Scout as they continue on in Scouting. It's been our experience that successful Scouts and successful troops have parents who can make time to be involved.
For questions, please contact your district executive or district membership chair.


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"The Horses of Equamore" Opening Reception – Inspired Pet Portraits and Animal Paintings by Dana Feagin
Thanks to everyone who celebrated National Horse Protection Day with me and staff from Equamore Horse Sanctuary at the opening reception for "The Horses of Equamore" at the Ashland Art Center. In the end, I completed seven paintings of Equamore horses, of which three were being touched up on Friday morning, but they were all framed and ready to show by Friday night. We had a great crowd, which included three Equamore Board members, and one volunteer, who were on hand to talk about the work Equamore does every day to help horses in need here in Jackson County. I met so many wonderful horse lovers, and had a great discussion with another artist about creating a large horse mural in honor of the wild horses being rounded up by the BLM – so, who knows where that may lead. The show remains up through the end of March, and 10% of sales will be donated to Equamore Foundation to assist with horse care and rescue. Two of the paintings have sold, but are available for viewing for the duration of the show. Available Equamore horse paintings and prices are now included in the "Paintings – other animals" section of my website. https://danafeagin.com/galleries/other-animal-paintings/ Below are a few photos of the evening.


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If you like haiku or are merely curious about the art, dive into this book. It traces the origin of the form in English from Ezra Pound's "In a Station at the Metro" through the effusive Beats (Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsburg) to contemporary masters of these powerful small poems. In the introduction, Billy Collins describes his love for these small gems and unlike many of the other artists included here, he writes in the familiar 5-7-5 syllabic pattern.
Here are a few of my favorite haiku included in the collection. But alas, there were so many good ones, it was hard to choose a small sample:
passport check
my shadow waits
across the border --George Swede
pregnant again…
the fluttering of moths
against the window --Janice Bostok
a deep gorge…
some of the silence
is me --John Stevenson
by tree
the summer fog --Paul O. Williams
The book also includes an extended afterword on the history of the form in English by one of its editors, Jim Kacian. This in-depth essay makes a fine, easily understandable introduction to the art. He covers what elements current haiku writers find essential, and it is not the familiar 5-7-5 pattern that we all learned about in school. These elements include: a kigo or season word that both connects the poet to the world happening now, but it can also refer back to other poems in the past—(frog leaping in a pond, anyone?). Another necessary aspect of haiku according to Kacian is a kire or cutting word that marks the juxtaposition between two images.
Over two hundred poets from around the world have work included here. This fascinating collection will charm and inspire you and would make a great read for anyone who loves this short form.
And to get a feel of traditional haiku by the original Japanese masters, try Robert Hass's The Essential Haiku: Versions by Basho, Buson, and Issa.


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Articles & resources
Eco Consulting likes to spread good practice in web design and code, and can deliver training in web technologies, complemented by general overviews and guides. We combine patience for the beginner's learning curve (or anyone upgrading their skills) with specialist expertise.
These public articles and examples aim to help anyone wanting to code (client-side) more intelligently, as well as experienced web designers making the transition to code or looking for a simple example. Please respect authorship by providing a reference if you quote or link to anything here.
CSS demos and examples
- Make a menu with pure CSS circles
- The CSS3
property can be given a 50% value to make perfect resizable circles. Add a subtle CSS3 glow transition to complete the effect. - Pure CSS tooltips
- The CSS
pseudo-elements, with some sneaky border hacking, can be used to generate nice-looking tooltips. - Animated perspective in pure CSS
- With the CSS3 properties
, smooth perspective transitions are possible. - Flicker-free CSS rollovers
- For non-flicker CSS rollover, don't swap images on
- it can cause problems with Internet Explorer and forces an image load. Use this 'conceal and reveal' technique instead.
Articles/examples on web coding
- Tetris for mobile
- Made from a tutorial, using web technologies for mobile development. If you have an iOS device, save to home screen and use like an app.
- Javascript wrinkles
- Notes made on the Javascript journey—at least, things I think will be useful to others on the same journey.
- JQuery+javascript show/hide toggle with changing link text
- You often see 'show article' links using JQuery
, but without changing the link to 'hide', so this (imperfect) version does that. - Build a website using nanoc on OS X
- Several mini-frameworks exist that enable you to create websites from templates and text files, and nanoc is one of the best.
- Install MongoDB on OS X
- A clearer, minimal version of the MongoDB 'quickstart' for OS X.
- An HTML5 example page
- Here's a page using HTML5 elements styled with CSS. Not rocket science (or brain surgery), but useful as a starting point.
- Use SSI to create CSS variables
- Apache's Server-Side Includes mean you can (e.g.) store all your CSS colours in one file and change every instance throughout all your stylesheets.
- Introducing semantic HTML markup (needs updating for HTML5)
- learn how to make well-structured and semantically marked-up body text, and improve the structure of your pages for accessibility, search engines and data harvesting.
A book, some websites and software
Currently, these are a few resources I would recommend for learning to actually build websites with HTML, CSS and Javascript:
- Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design
- This book stops you worrying about how sites appear in various browsers and eases you into using well-structured, semantic HTML and the full range of CSS possibilities. It outlines the kind of web code we should all be implementing now.
- Team TreeHouse
- An excellent UK-based site with just about everything you need to know about building websites, and an intro to mobile coding for iOS. I used to recommend Web Design From Scratch but it seems a little cluttered now, although there are still some good tutorials there.
- Code Academy
- 2012 is Code Year, and Code Academy offers step-by-step tutorials based on Javascript, a great introduction to learning such things as variables, functions, conditional statements and the like.
- Basic guide to web design
- This page of useful links was kindly suggested by a visitor. One or two links have outdated information on tables and some of the tutorials use capital HTML tags (which developers now avoid), and the font links don't mention @font-face or Google web fonts, but it's not too bad as a starting point.
- Coda
- Hand-coding is the best way to learn (fewer frustrations and more control than visual editors), and Coda fits the job. Everything is in one place: advanced text editor, visual style sheet editor, page previews, ftp, command-line shell, plus online reference works. You can store all your sites' settings and code/upload from one application; you don't need much else (see this review). Sadly Mac OS X-only, but for Windows there's the excellent EditPlus.
Other resources
- Free and open source tools
- Some of the best software and online resources remain free (or free at a usable entry level), and there are excellent and compatible alternatives to the big software names. These selected links were used in a workshop Tools for online collaboration and management at the Cii conference, Leicester, 6 Dec 2007.
- Getting started with Django (old version)
- Django is a Python web framework (like Ruby on Rails or Perl's Catalyst). If MVC or framework mean nothing to you, read this article on web frameworks.
- Web designers and web developers
- An article written for PerlBuzz that asks 'Why do designers fail to adopt Perl?' but goes into the 'designers v developers' issue, frameworks, templates, and why things should - and sometimes aren't - separated.


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Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The 14.7-square-mile (38.0 km2) city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 census figure. Whittier was incorporated in February 1898 and became a charter city in 1955. The city is named for the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier and is home to Whittier College. == Etymology == In the founding days of Whittier, when it was a small isolated town, Jonathan Bailey and his wife, Rebecca, were among the first residents.
Amigo Park, Anaconda Park, Belvedere, Belvedere Gardens, Central Park, City Terrace, City of Whittier Palm Park Center, Comstock Village HOA, Dollar Yes, East Whittier, Five Points, Founders Memorial Park, Friendly Hills, Lakewood Village, Leffingwell